Can Saints build on the draw at Bramall Lane

As has been said in previous weeks, the only predictable thing about Saints performances is the unpredictability, however on Tuesday night Jan Poortvliet seemed to have at last realised just where things were going wrong and installed an experienced back four that in turn brought in stability and composure.

Of course Im sure the head coach knew that this was neccessary, but his problem is that with the club in financial meltdown he had to concentrate on building team spirit and playing players that were likely to be there long term and not short.

The trip to Swansea will hopefully see a side based on the side for Sheffield, of course Oliver Lancashire will be missing, so Poortvlieet will have a dilemma as to who to replace him with, however with the fact that Swansea are more of a footballing side than many in this division, the loss of Lancashire's height wont be missed so much.

One option would be to bring Jack Cork into the centre of defence alongside Chris Perry and restore Lloyd James to the right back spot, although if Morgan Scheiderlin had a little more recuperation behind him it would have been one scenario to have played him in the centre of defence in a straight swap for Lancashire, however with the games coming thick and fast in the next week, Scheiderlin will probably have to be satisfied with a place on the bench.

The trip to South Wales wont be an easy one, although a win would bring Saints to within a couple of points of Swansea, the fact is that they are formidable at home, unbeaten so far this season, form that has helped them to 11th in the league, although league position is slightly misleading in the fact that a win against Saints could possibly take them up to fourth, a little bit of a pipedream perhaps, but sitting in a play off spot on Saturday is a real possibility if they do win.

But its not all doom and gloom for Saints, firstly that six game ubeaten spell at home is comprised of only two wins and four draws including a 0-0 against QPR last week and secondly  they could be up against an untried teenage keeeper in Artur Krysiak who is on loan from Birmingham, however Swansea are working on bringing in a loan keeper after regular Dorus De Vries suffered facial injuries against QPR.

My view is that each game in an ubeaten run is a step nearer the one that ends it and it could well be Saints who do that if they can put in the resolute display they did in Yorkshire as well as add a little more attacking flare.

Swansea include ex Saint Gary Monk who will be looking to perform well against his old club, but he is not the quickest player and its hoped that we could use our pace on the break well against him.

This is the first visit to Swansea for 26 years, when we played the second of two visits as Swansea enjoyed a two season sojourn in the top flight, both trips to the Vetch Field ended in defeat for Saints, in April 1982 as the Falklands War flared up Kevin Keegan couldnt inspire Saints to anything more than a 1-0 defeat and then six months later on the 23rd october, exactly 26 years ago yesterdaay, Saints looked to have earned a 2-2 draw, including a goal from Justin Fashanu, until the Swans struck an injury time winner, however although their home form was decent, on the road they failed to win a game and were relegated, beginning a descent that was as swift as their rapid rise under John Toshack.

Its virtually impossible to predict the result at the Liberty Stadium, in truth it could go any way, however although anything less than a win could see Saints drop into the bottom three, its important to point out that this season is going to be long and hard and although a draw might see us in the relegation zone come Saturday night, its about where we are over 46 games and if we have earned a point at Swansea i for one will see it as another step in the right direction.       

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